Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan today directed his ministry officials to ensure 4 per cent procurement of goods and services from dalit entrepreneurs, of the total 20 per cent mandated to be carried out from small and medium enterprises.
The directive comes in the backdrop of the Modi government's outreach to dalits on the occasion of the ongoing 125th birth anniversary celebrations of B R Ambedkar.
At a meeting attended by senior officials of Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry as well as representatives from Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI), Paswan decided "to take time-bound action to involve scheduled caste (SCs)and scheduled tribes (STs) in initiatives taken by the ministry," sources said.
The minister also asked DICCI representatives to assign nodal officers in various verticals to be in constant touch with the officers of both Food and Consumer Affairs Departments and heads of related organisations.
The meeting was attended by Food Secretary Vrinda Saroop, Consumer Affairs Secretary C Vishwanath, FCI Chairman and Managing Director Yogendra Tripathi, Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) Director General Alka Panda, Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) Managing Director Harpreet Singh among others.
From DICCI side, its President Milind Kamble and others were present in the meeting.
In the hour-long meeting, the Paswan gave clear instructions to encourage SC and ST enterprises and also told organisations like BIS and FCI to be proactive in their approach.
DICCI representatives pointed out to be entry barriers in the bid document of the PPP project. They also told the officials that the members from SC/STs are available in large numbers in service sectors like construction, logistics and housekeeping and their interest need to be kept in mind.
The Food Secretary mentioned that there is huge requirement in IT sector as the government is installing Point of Sale devices at over 5 lakh ration shops through state governments.
In the meeting, PSUs such as FCI, CWC and BIS were told to workout modalities so as to ensure benefits to targeted communities under the MSME Act.
Addressing a conference of DICCI in December last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that financial inclusion was at the core of the government's focus and the Centre was working for the empowerment of people especially those belonging to backward classes.
"Our government is aap ki sarkar (your government). We are working for your empowerment. ...Financial inclusion is at the core of our focus. We want to create job-creators, not job-seekers," Modi had said.
Paswan said that today's meeting is in line with the PM's focus to encourage entrepreneurship among dalits and other ministries have also been asked to carry out such exercise.
